The Effect of Individual and Family Factors on Primary School Walking (Case Study: 18 primary schools in Shiraz)

Walking between school and home is a good opportunity for students to reach the recommended level of physical activity during the day. The paper aims to investigate the effect of individual and family factors on the walking of primary school students to school. The study students (n: 1503) were randomly selected from 18 primary schools in Shiraz. The questionnaire included the student's travel type, their individual characteristics (age and gender), family characteristics (parental occupation and education, average income and so on) were completed and analyzed using the binary logistic regression model. Findings showed girls have less tendency to walk. In addition, increasing the father's level of education reduces walking among students. Moreover, an increase in the number of children in the family, having active daily trips by mothers and Improving parents' attitudes toward the quality of passages will increase students walking to school. Meanwhile, car ownership, the number of family members with driving licenses, average income, and parental attitudes toward traffic accidents and parental perception toward the walking time to school were indirectly related to a student walking. The present study highlights the importance of individual and family factors on students' walking rates for urban planners and policymakers. One of the important results of this study is that by changing the pattern of mother daily trips from personal vehicles to active trips, students will be more likely to walk to school.